Proper 10 / Pentecost 8 / OT 15
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
-- Romans 8:5
"To set [your] minds on the things of the flesh" is to view life from the perspective of our immediate needs, desires, and fears. In a sense, it is to follow our animal nature in that we are guided by a basic instinct to survive and to pleasure ourselves. We act from the assumption that we are the center of the universe, and everything revolves around us. In contrast, to set our minds on the things of the Spirit is to allow our lives to be directed by a transcendent perspective. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, his prayer to let the cup pass from him was an expression of the natural human desire to survive. To then pray "yet not what I want but what you want" (Matthew 26:39) was to give himself over to the spiritual perspective of the divine. Life based on things of the flesh centers on death and is "hostile to God." The reason that the law, "weakened by the flesh," cannot save us is that we are always rationalizing and interpreting the law through our own personal needs and fears. Recall how we struggle to reinterpret the commandment "You shall not kill" (or murder) to permit war, capital punishment, and so forth. God sent "his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh" to deal with sin. Jesus lived his life centered on God rather than on self, Spirit rather than flesh. "But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness." By the power of the Spirit in us, we are able to live life from a divine perspective.
-- Romans 8:5
"To set [your] minds on the things of the flesh" is to view life from the perspective of our immediate needs, desires, and fears. In a sense, it is to follow our animal nature in that we are guided by a basic instinct to survive and to pleasure ourselves. We act from the assumption that we are the center of the universe, and everything revolves around us. In contrast, to set our minds on the things of the Spirit is to allow our lives to be directed by a transcendent perspective. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, his prayer to let the cup pass from him was an expression of the natural human desire to survive. To then pray "yet not what I want but what you want" (Matthew 26:39) was to give himself over to the spiritual perspective of the divine. Life based on things of the flesh centers on death and is "hostile to God." The reason that the law, "weakened by the flesh," cannot save us is that we are always rationalizing and interpreting the law through our own personal needs and fears. Recall how we struggle to reinterpret the commandment "You shall not kill" (or murder) to permit war, capital punishment, and so forth. God sent "his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh" to deal with sin. Jesus lived his life centered on God rather than on self, Spirit rather than flesh. "But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness." By the power of the Spirit in us, we are able to live life from a divine perspective.
